CLIVE, Iowa – Farm producers and agricultural real estate professionals will hear from one of the best known real estate entrepreneurs on earth, Donald J. Trump, at the 2015 Land Investment Expoon January 23, at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel.
Called the archetypal businessman and a dealmaker without peer, Mr. Trump is expected to remark on his personal experiences in the real estate industry, the current state of the real estate market, and how to get ahead of the competition. Mr. Trump is chairman and president of The Trump Organization, New York, which bills itself as “the world’s only global luxury real estate super-brand.” His many books include the best-selling business book of all time, “The Art of the Deal”; “Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received” (2006); as well as a string of instructive best-selling titles such as, “How to Get Rich,” “The Way to the Top,” and “Think Like a Billionaire.”
Mr. Trump’s featured speaking platform at the Land Expo follows the 2014 engagement of T. Boone Pickens, who turned a $2,500 investment into the nation’s largest independent oil company. Correspondingly, Mr. Trump – whose first real estate deals were in middle-class rental housing in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island – in 2013 received the T. Boone Pickens Award for entrepreneurial excellence and business leadership from The American Spectator magazine, which described him as an American original.
Presented by real estate firm Peoples Company, the Land Investment Expo is a daylong event that each January attracts the brightest minds in land investing and farm real estate to Central Iowa. Hundreds of bankers, farmers, real estate agents, investors and developers are expected to attend expert educational sessions, visit trade exhibitors, and interact with fellow producers and professionals on-site.
Besides Mr. Trump, whose name is synonymous with prestigious addresses in New York and around the world, programming at the eighth annual Land Investment Expo will look as far afield as sub-Saharan Africa for budding opportunities in real estate. A delegation of Iowans recently back from South Africa, Zambia and Mozambique will reunite for an appraisal with their host, EmVest Agricultural Corp. CEO Susan Payne, who runs a “turf to table” operation in Africa for the diversified agricultural investment company.
Ms. Payne is a repeat Land Expo speaker whose initial, 2011 discussion of the role of agriculture in global food security was followed by a 2013 presentation of her views on untapped investment opportunities in Africa, including emerging farmland markets. This year she will be joined by a crew of “agri-tourists” from the agricultural heartland of the U.S.: noted ag journalist Ken Root, economic analyst Maurice Clark and videographer Michael McClean.
Other expert speakers confirmed for the 2015 Land Investment Expo include:
• Dennis Gartman, an influential investor who closely follows commodities and capital markets as editor and publisher of The Gartman Letter and is a frequent contributor on CNBC and Bloomberg TV;
• Eric O’Keefe, editor of The Land Report, the magazine of the American landowner;
• Simon Atkins, M.B.A., Ph.D., D.Sc., climate risk economist, commodity yield expert and CEO of Advanced Forecasting Corp. of Billings, Montana; and
• Edmond Seifried, Ph.D., executive consultant and chief economist for the Sheshunoff CEO Affiliation Programs, Austin, Texas, high performance education and idea exchanges for community bank CEOs, lenders and technology/operations officers.
Peoples Company President Steve Bruere, the originator of the Land Investment Expo who secures compelling guest speakers each year, said Mr. Trump is a good fit for the top of the 2015 lineup. “With so many superlatives to his name – including the tallest residence in the world right here in the Midwest, the Trump International Hotel & Tower/Chicago – Donald Trump is a true legend in the real estate industry,” Mr. Bruere said.
“He’s been credited with entire market shifts like creating a condominium boom in New York City, and his multiple development projects there had a positive impact in the midst of an economic downturn. He’s a founding member of The Wharton School Real Estate Center at the University of Pennsylvania, which is a leading center of real estate education and research. And of course he’s well-known for his outspoken nature, so we look forward to hearing what he has to say to fellow investors here in Iowa.”
Find more information about or register to attend the 2015 Land Investment Expo atwww.LandInvestmentExpo.com, or by phoning 855-800-LAND (5263).
